Air quality has been a popular issue for decades. Air quality is typically in the context of outdoor pollutants such as smog, car exhaust, or smoke. The negative effects of poor outdoor air quality has on an individual's health has been well studied and is commonly known. Now, the focus is moving indoors to the negative effects poor indoor air quality has on a person's health.
Indoor air pollution is one of the world's worst pollution problems. People spend 90% of their time indoors and 65% of their time is in their home. That number is even higher for the patients most vulnerable to poor indoor air quality: bed-ridden patients with chronic disease, the elderly, and infants. These patients suffer from difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, and aggravation of chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions.
One such medical condition that is worsened by poor indoor air quality is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is predicted to become the third leading cause of death by 2020. Currently, poor indoor air quality is responsible for 700,000 of the 2.7 million deaths from COPD worldwide. When poor indoor air quality does not cause death, it triggers symptoms in COPD patients.
Poor indoor air quality can also trigger symptoms in asthmatics. The environmental protection agency (EPA) lists secondhand smoke, dust mites, mold, pests, warm-blooded pets, and nitrogen and outside as the most common indoor asthma triggers. Approximately one in ten Americans have been diagnosed with asthma and 70% of them also have allergies. It is estimated that the number of asthmatics will grow to 100 million by 2025.
There have been numerous studies showing an association between indoor air quality and heart disease. In particular, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and fine particle mass have been found to trigger episodes in arrhythmia patients. According to another study, particle mass exposure should be considered as a target for treatment of coronary artery disease—the leading cause of death in developed nations.
Still, the study of the health effects from indoor air quality has only just begun. There are links between indoor air exposure and diabetes, obesity, neurodevelopmental disorders, among many others. As the number of people suffering from poor indoor air quality continues to grow, the scientific literature and the awareness of this health issue will grow as well.
Telemedicine has been shown to reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases by reducing and shortening hospital visits. The providers of telemedicine technology can help hospitals control their costs where it matters most.
In the current administration's healthcare reforms, new legislation will penalize hospitals for readmission. Currently, readmissions are the most costly to the government and the taxpayer taking up nearly 20% of Medicare's $103 billion budget. In fact, one in five patients discharged are readmitted within 30 days. This is widely regarded to be an avoidable problem. However, some patients with chronic diseases will always be coming back.
Due to the chronic and worsening nature of COPD, patients suffering from this disease have some of the highest readmission rates. Consequently, the average annual Medicare expenditure on COPD patients is nearly double that of all covered patients. COPD also has the highest cost of care of all illnesses. Knowing that poor indoor air quality can trigger symptoms in COPD patients, remote and constant monitoring of the indoor air quality in COPD patients' homes can help reduce these costs.
Asthma is responsible for a large number of hospital visits as well. It accounts for 10.5 million visits each year and is the third ranking cause of visits for children under 15. As a result, the direct cost due to asthma in the United States each year is $14.7 billion. While people suffering from asthma know the importance of eliminating triggers from their environment, fewer than 30% know what those triggers are. Constant monitoring of indoor air quality can raise awareness of asthma triggers and prevent millions of hospital visits each year.